All posts tagged ‘Ollo’

When I was at Toy Fair earlier this year, one of the booths that caught my eye was the robot-filled one of Robotis. I was interested in their Ollo robot kits, which are similar to Lego. There’s a booklet with visual step-by-step instructions showing how to put robots together, plus all the parts you need to make a variety of different robots.

The folks at Robotis sent us a kit to try out. My daughter is much younger than the recommended 10+ on the box, but that didn’t diminish her enthusiasm in the slightest. The tiny connector pieces were a little too small for her to work with easily, but there’s two steps to putting them together – sliding the bottoms into the holes, and then pushing the tops down. She became a master at that second step. I was shredding all of my fingernails putting the connectors together and into the holes, realizing only once we were nearly finished that the kit comes with a handy tool that makes it so much easier. Duh.

The connectors are tiny, but there's a world of options for putting parts together.

The great thing about the kit is that first there are steps to make a basic bug body. Then there are different sections to customize the bug. With the one that we chose, we managed to build right over the power button on the motor. We got it working in no time, but then when it shut itself off we were very confused about how to turn it back on. An inquiry to Robotis set us straight.

As a remote-control toy, it’s very satisfying. First, because we built it and felt proud of the fruits of our labor. Second, because the controls actually work well. Unlike many other RC toys, my daughter has no trouble getting our bug to go where she wants it to.

You’ll see in the video that the next thing we need to do is figure out how to build a bug that will pick up Cheerios off our floor.

Ollo DIY robots are great for any kids with an interest in robots, but depending on the age of your kids, plan on helping out. (You’ll want to anyway because it’s pretty fun.) The kits aren’t cheap, but I think they’re worth it. And, as we’ve discovered, people will come over to your house, see the robot that you made, and think that you’re awesome.

As I rounded corner after corner at the NY Toy Fair this week, there they were: robots, and lots of them. Some were fuzzy and wanted to be my friend. Some had a menacing mechanical appeal. Others camouflaged as little organic creatures. Some were for toddlers, some were for tweens, but I mostly wanted them all for myself.

Photo: Amy Kraft

GeekMom is no stranger to Hexbugs (see Jenny’s Hexbug party), and they have many cool new additions to the lineup, including the remote-control Spider, collectable metallic Hexbugs, and new habitat sets and expansion packs for the Hexbug Nanos, which won the TOTY Award for Specialty Toy of the Year. Glow in the dark Nano sets were the talk of Toy Fair, but I was particularly taken with seeing the prototype of the new Hexbug Larva in action.

Like your robots more cute and cuddly? Cozy up to Penbo and Skylee from Bossa Nova Robotics, a company spawned from Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute. They pack a cuteness punch when you flip down their bellies to release an egg with a little Bebe inside – little puffball babies that the big robots will interact with, great for mama/baby play. When I had a look at them, there were some difficulties getting them to respond, but I could chalk that up to the convention center environment they were operating in. I’d want to see these in the living room environment to really check out their capabilities.

Photo: Amy Kraft

Others are trying their hand at the cutie robots, like Yoha Technology’s Tandars, but I couldn’t get past the freaky-looking face. If you want to see how the big guns do it, check out this video of Mattel’s Fijit Friends, which I unfortunately didn’t have a chance to see in person.

Bossa Nova was also showing Mechatars, which will be out later this year. I totally appreciated the engineers on the floor of the booth, plugging away at the programming and taking breaks to talk about the robots. Through online and offline play, you can evolve your Mechatar, giving it new skills, weapons and abilities for battle. I’ve gotten to the point where I tune out hearing about toys connecting to virtual world, but this one actually looks cool. The 3D art is much more console than computer, and the space age battles with the screen Mechatars looked as fun as the offline remote-control battle and mission play. Battle data and experience points are passed back and forth between online and offline play, so one mode of play informs the other.

Mechatars Image: Bossa Nova Robotics

On the education front, Robotis had cool kits targeting different age ranges with a robotics curriculum. Each kit had parts and step-by-step instructions to make a wide range of different robots, and to show what’s possible as a way to get creative juices flowing.

Photo: Amy Kraft

Robots were also present in design. I’m a big fan of Crocodile Creek gear. My daughter has one of their durable, little-kid-friendly backpacks, and I’m excited to see robots as choice for 1st Grade!

Photo: Amy Kraft

I fell in love with Kauzbots, Robots with a Heart. The retro-looking plush are practically pillow-sized at 18″ tall, and each has a back pocket with a little heart in it. Each of the ten different Kauzbots cares about a different cause (get it?), like autism, the environment, and homelessness, and 10% of the suggested retail price goes to a non-profit organization associated with each robot’s cause.

Photo: Amy Kraft

Last year, science emerged as a major presence at Toy Fair in the form of all kinds of science experiment kits and products. Seeing that expand further into robotics this year was exciting, even if the robots will one day rise up and destroy us. (I hope they will be the cute kind.)